Tropes/Women
Haven avoids most gender and sexuality related tropes, except for un-balanced casting. See our Bechdel page and Death by gender for more on the numbers. Missing moms The large gender imbalance in Haven is most noticeable when looking at family lines. Most mothers are Missing Moms, and many of these are not even named. There are many reasons for this. Troubles are triggered by emotional distress often leading to an origin story where the death of a parent triggers their child's Trouble. In Haven Lineage Comes From The Father using a Single Line Of Descent so the mother is often the dead parent or is simply not important enough to be mentioned. The number of dead parents has left most of the main characters suffering Parental Abandonment. For other death tropes, see Tropes/Death. If you're a Doylist, this is because Most Writers Are Male. There has been no Watsonian explanation presented for the lack of women, but many fans theorise that the Mysterious Woman is being punished for some original sin and that this punishment hurts the women of Haven as well. Number overview The ratio for recurring characters in Haven is mostly even (5:4 in favor of men) there are severe number imbalances when looking at smaller characters. The ratio for minor characters is 3:2 in favor of men. The ratio for mentioned characters is even more severe, 2:1 in favor of men. See Tropes: Bechdel for more specific number breakdowns. The classic trope Men Are The Expendable Gender, is regularly averted. See Tropes: Death by gender for more. There are twice as many fatherhood stories in Haven as there are motherhood stories (24 to 12). The gender gap is so large that there are more father/son stories (13) than there are motherhood stories total (12) and almost twice as many missing mother stories (22) as there are motherhood stories. This may be largely attributed to the affects of lineage coming from the father. Ten of the fatherhood stories are stories of a Troubled bloodline, compared to only one of the motherhood stories. See Tropes: Bloodlines for more on this. The numbers get even more disparate when looking at missing parents. There are 22 missing mothers, compared to only 5 missing fathers. 18 of those mothers are never named, and 8 of those are never even mentioned. Of the five missing fathers, only 2 are unmentioned and unnamed. Some of this can be attributed to lineage coming from the father, like the odd case of Mark. We know the name of Mark's sperm donor, but not the name of Mark's mother because Mark is a minor character and his family is only important because his bloodline is Troubled. Mothers Even among the mothers who have the distinction of actually appearing, many die or leave their children. Beatrice Mitchell, Sarah Vernon and Mary Collins have to give up their children. Piper Taylor, Eleanor Carr and Roslyn Toomey die. Over a quarter of these mothers are not birth mothers, showing the effects of lineage coming from the father. Hannah Driscoll and June Cogan are adoptive mothers, while Gwen Glendower and Gloria Verrano are step-mothers. In contrast, there is only one father who's an adoptive parent: Garland Wournos. Not only do non birth mothers not die young, they tend to subvert this trope entirely and outlive their children. James Cogan, Leith Glendower, and Aaron Harker all die young while their adopted and step-mothers are all still living. *Hannah Driscoll - foster-mother to Bobby Mueller *Beatrice Mitchell - Trouble forces her into motherhood"Ball and Chain" *Piper Taylor dies for her son, Landon"Fur" *Tracy Garrick - mother to Michael and Brooke. *Mary Collins kidnaps her son, Daniel Glendower in an attempt to save his life *Gwen Glendower - step-mother to Leith Glendower *Roslyn Toomey - Wesley's mother"301" *June Cogan - adoptive mother to the Colorado Kid *Sarah Vernon is James Cogan's birthmother. She later spends time with him as Lucy and Audrey Parker."Thanks For The Memories" *Rebecca Rafferty has a son Dylan."Countdown *Gloria Verrano - step-mother to Ben Harker, Jr. Mother/daughter stories *Eleanor Carr/Julia Carr"As You Were" Fathers There are twice as many fatherhood stories as there are motherhood stories (24 to 12) and more father/son stories (13) then all motherhood stories combined (12). Of these stories, 10 focus on multiple generations of the Troubled. Anticipatory fathers There are three fatherhood stories that focus on the relationship between father and child even before the child is born: *Kyle Hopkins kills himself to spare his unborn child his grave-digging Trouble"Sins of the Fathers" *Braer Brock his wife, Carmen are not parents, or anticipatory parents but Braer's longing to be a father and his guilt over being unable to give his wife children triggers his Trouble, conjuring Dounes."Lost and Found" *Aiden Driscoll - anticipatory father"Crush" Father/daughter stories *Reverend Driscoll - father to Hannah Driscoll. *Duke Crocker - father to Jean Mitchell. *Alec - father to Vicki Dutton"Sketchy" *Anson Shumway - father to Jeanie *Dwight Hendrickson - father to Lizie"Who, What, Where, Wendigo?" *Gordon Chambers - father to Hadley"Silent Night" *Roland Holloway *Morton Danvers - father to Ginger Danvers"Burned" Father/son stories *Garland Wuornos/Nathan Wuornos"Welcome to Haven" *James Garrick/Michael Garrick *Max Hansen/Nathan Wuornos"Spiral" *T. J. Smith/Aaron Smith"A Tale of Two Audreys" *Richard Brody/Chris Brody"Sparks and Recreation" *Cole Glendower/Leith Glendower *Rory Campbell's father is present and assists the search party for his son. *Simon Crocker/Duke Crocker *Tor Magnusson/Liam Magnusson"Stay" *Harry Nix/Connor Nix *Roy Crocker/Simon Crocker *Nathan Wuornos/James Cogan *Ben Harker, Jr./Aaron Harker Missing mothers These characters are missing their mothers: their mother died, ran off or is unmentioned or unnamed. This list includes mothers who left a child when they were young (run-away, died) and mothers who are missing from the narrative. This list also includes instances where the parent is mentioned but for some reasons never named. *Marion Caldwell's mother died, triggering her Trouble. Though mentioned several times, she is never named. *Nathan Wuornos has two fathers (Garland Wuornos and Max Hansen). How many mothers he had is unknown and four seasons in no mother has been named. *Duke Crocker is an orphan, but his father, Simon Crocker functions as a Mysterious Parent when he comes back from the dead to reveal Duke's Secret Legacy. Duke also meets his grandfather Roy, and Fitzwilliam Crocker, another male ancestor is mentioned. His mother is unnamed. *Hannah Driscoll's mother Penny faked her death and abandoned her daughter."The Tides That Bind""Butterfly" *Vicki Dutton works for her father, Alec. Her mother is never seen or mentioned."Sketchy" *Zack Taylor's father Landon and unnamed mother died in a fire. Landon's mother Piper brings Landon back to life but not his wife. The wife is never named."Fur" *Jackie Clark mentions that her father died, triggering her Trouble, but her mother is never mentioned. *Dwight Hendrickson mentions his father, but never his mother."Business As Usual" *Aaron Smith's mother Connie Shubert dies in childbirth *Chris Brody's father Richard is seen, but his mother is unseen and unnamed.Chris also has a Wicked Stepmother in Felicia. *Henry's mother abandoned him, causing him to run away from home."Friend or Faux" *Rory Campbell's father is notified of his disappearance and helps run the search part. A mother is never mentioned. *Hadley Chambers's parents split-up causing her unnamed mother to literally disappear. Her father Gordon Chambers still exists, he is the last person to be vanished by his daughter's Trouble."Silent Night" *Elizabeth Hendrickson - Dwight's daughter, Lizzie is portrayed as motherless. Her mother is never mentioned."Escape to Haven" *Liam Magnusson is raised by single father Tor, after an unnamed mother abandoned him."Stay" *Mark's mother is unnamed. We know the name of his sperm donor (Harry Nix), but all we know about his mother is that she's Stan's sister. *James Cogan is raised by June and Paul Cogan. As an adult he seeks out his birth mother, Sarah Vernon. *Ginger Danvers is raised by single father Morton after her unnamed mother died. *Wade Crocker's mother is never named, despite the fact that Wade was not raised by his father and was therefore likely raised by his mother."Survivors" *Bill and Sally Marigold's father have a father Frank but their mother is never mentioned. *Ben Harker, Jr. - Ben's mother is never mentioned. She appears to have died or left the family when he was young, as Ben Jr. considers Gloria Verrano, his step-mother, to be the woman responsible for raising him. *Aaron Harker - Aaron's mother Ashley appears briefly, before dropping dead, killed by her infant son's Trouble. Ashley is not named until after she dies. Missing fathers *Julia Carr's father is never mentioned. *Daniel Glendower's father Cole is murdered. His mother Mary Collins will take over as his primary caretaker once the Troubles are over and the Glendower males's can return to dry land. *Wesley Toomey's father is never mentioned. His Trouble is triggered when his mother Roslyn is abducted. *Mark's mother used a sperm donor, who turned out to be Harry Nix. *Michael and Brooke Garrick cannot see their father, James. While he watches over his family, his Trouble means that they cannot see him or interact with him. Siblings Haven has very few siblings, due in large part to the high number of characters dealing with Orphan's Ordeal. Brothers *Vince and Dave Teagues *Jeff and Bll"Consumed" *Duke and Wade Crocker"Fallout" *Aiden and Jack Driscoll Sisters *Frankie, Amelia and Sophia Benton *Moira and Noelle *Carmen Brock and Valerie Mixed siblings Almost all of these are mentioned only. The Garrick siblings are the only set of mixed siblings where we get to see their story. *Michael and Brooke Garrick *Beverly Keegan and her unnamed brothers *Bruce and Annie Fresnel *Whitney, Craig and Will Brady"Last Goodbyes" *Sally and Bill Marigold Notes References Category:Tropes